Hindu Polity: A Constitutional History of India in Hindu Times c43.112

c43.112

and the Śukranīti (II. 3.)¹ suggest that. The opinion which the king was bound to follow according to the Śukra-nīti (II. 3), was of (*a*) the Sabhya, (*b*) the Adhikārins, and (*c*) the Prakṛitis, as *sabhāsads* or members sitting in the Council. The *Sabhya* according to the authority quoted by Govindarāja (§ 309) was the President of the Council or the Mantra-Parishad of Kauṭilya. *Adhikārins* were the heads of Adhikaraṇas or Departments, *i. e.*, the Ministers. The remaining one *Prakṛitis* must necessarily signify the People or Subjects (p. 70), meaning thereby their representatives—the chiefs of the Paura and Jānapada (§ 265). In the Rāmāyaṇa [A., chs. 81 (12), 82 (1, 4)] the People's representatives and the Ministers meet and hold a *Sabhā* called the 'ruling (*pragrahā*) Sabhā' to consider an *atyāyika* ('extra-ordinary,' cf. AŚ., p. 29) business.